The popular Japanese portal mojito shared article indicating that the industry of voice actors who also perform as singersalso known as “seiyuu-idols”, declining. It turns out that sales of music CDs in 2022 were miserable, though Songs published by VTubers continue to rise, already dominating streaming services. It is possible, says the site, that fans of voice actresses are moving in with VTubers.
«Voice actresses, the royal goddesses of Otaku allure, are being displaced. The numbers for songs released in 2022 are not generalized. In their place are the recently fashionable VTubers, whose sales numbers are increasing. In 2022, the voice actors continued to be active as artists, releasing various songs on CD. However, looking at the CD sales figures of the first weeks released by Oricon, it must be said that the figures are discouraging.».
«The order of the singles starts with the first position of “YARAZUNOAME“, of Tomori KusunokiAfter that “Welcome Hajimaru“, of Aguri Onishi; and then with “Anohino Kotoba / Growing“, of Nao Touyama, which sold around 7,000 copies in its first week. Most mini-CDs have sold less than 5,000 copies, and no song has sold more than 10,000 copies».
«That said, the figures for the big CDs are also based on buy-ins to events like mini-concerts and rock-paper-scissors competitions, as well as other perks. If pure CD sales are taken into account, the results can be alarmingly bad. Naturally, comments emerged in networks such as: “The voice actor bubble has finally burst“Y”A few years ago, thousands of copies were still being sold, given or taken“».
«Of course, the number of people who listen to music on CDs is decreasing these days, and they probably use YouTube or streaming services. However, if we are on YouTube views of the best selling songs, most have less than 500,000 views and they don’t seem to have produced any big hits. First, the main basis of idol songs is for fans to play them over and over again, so the number of plays should be up to more than the actual number of plays in comparison. After all, the number of voice acting enthusiasts continues to dwindle.».
«With voice actors struggling to sell their songs, VTubers are popular instead of voice actresses. Not only are they doing well in streaming, but they seem to be doing very well in the music realm. For example, “Houshou Sea” is a popular VTuber from Hololive Production. The song “Me Your Treasure Box“, published in July of this year is only available digitally, but the video clip published on YouTube has already been received more than 15.7 million reproductions».
«Another Hololive Production member, “Minato Aqua“He used his original song”#Iro Aqua palettein YouTube’s official announcement».
«Many other VTuber songs have also appeared in anime and video games in recent years. Another big advantage is that, unlike voice actors, They have no record label affiliation, which allows them to make the job of releasing covers easier. In fact, the songs covered by popular VTubers already have millions of views. Fans who used to be excited about the artistic pursuits of voice actors may now be migrating to the VTubers marketplace.».
«Over the last decade or so, the voice acting industry has been pushing to produce idols more easily, but repeated scandals and fears of possible marriage have caused problems for fans. It was probably only a matter of time before the sales model of seiyuu-idols would collapse sooner or later. In this sense, VTubers can hide their private lives forever, being in a way the “perfect sale”. It may be inevitable that otaku will prioritize the two-dimensional over the three-dimensional».
font: mojito
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